Spitzer aide cannot hide

Sunday

Oct 28, 2007 at 2:00 AM

Who does Eliot Spitzer think he is, Richard Nixon? George Bush? That question is not as crazy as it seems given the latest development in the standoff between the governor and the leader of the Senate.

Who does Eliot Spitzer think he is, Richard Nixon? George Bush? That question is not as crazy as it seems given the latest development in the standoff between the governor and the leader of the Senate.

To recap, the majority leader, Sen. Joe Bruno, abused his power to use state drivers and aircraft for political trips with only the thinnest of official business veneers. That is outrageous. Some of the governor's people went after him, abusing the press and the state police in a thinly veiled attempt to take down a political enemy. That, too, is outrageous.

One of the two chief would-be dirty tricksters, Darren Dopp, communications chief for Spitzer through the attorney general years and into the gubernatorial ones, was suspended and now has resigned to work with lobbyists.

But he still faces subpoenas to testify under oath, presumably to say what the governor knew and did. Spitzer says nobody did anything wrong and nobody has anything to hide. Yet Dopp is resisting the subpoenas, citing concerns about executive privilege.

Is the governor worried about what will come out? Will he follow the lead of the president in the Scooter Libby case and promise to cooperate, only to draw the wagons into the executive privilege circle when the questions get a little too close?

Eliot Spitzer has promised New Yorkers that they can trust him. If his aides fail to testify under oath when called, that trust will be forever broken.